Hopper.



A. R. HAVENER.

HOPPER.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 7, 1914. 1, 1 08,580. Patented July 14, 1914. v

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A.R.HAVENB HOPPER.

APPLIGATION FILED THE. '7, 1914.

Patented July 14, 1914.

2 SHBETS-SHEET 2.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ARTHUR H. HAVENER, 0F WALTI-IAM, .MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR T0 AMERICAN LAGING HOOK 00., A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

HOPPER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jilly 1a, 1914.

Application filed February 7, 1914. Serial No. 817,272.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ARTHUR R. HAVENER, a citizen of the United States, residing at lValtham, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful improvements in Hoppers, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to an improved hopper for separating lacing hooks or the like from a mass and delivering them one by one to a raceway to be fed to a machine for automatically setting said lacing hooks.

The lacing hooks are removed from a mass of the same contained in a-suitable casing by a rotary picker plate in a manner well known to those skilled in the art and if for any reason a lacing hook becomes jammed upon the blades of the picker plate or if for any reason abnormal resistance to the rotation of said picker plate is encountered thereby it is desirable that the direction of rotation of said picker plate should be reversed and thus remove any lacing v hook that may become jammed on one of the blades thereof or free said picker plate from abnormal resistance encountered thereby, whatever the reason may be. i

It is the object of this invention to provide a hopper in which the picker plate is rotated in a certain direction and when abnormal resistance is encountered by said picker plate for any reason the same will have its direction of rotation reversed automatically by the driving mechanism which imparts a rotary movement to the picker plate and its shaft.

The invention consists in the combination and arrangement of parts set forth in the following specification and particularly pointed out in the claims thereof.

Referring to the drawings: Figure 1 is a front elevation of my improved hopper, the front cover being partly broken away fOt'f the sake of illustration. Fig. 2 is a detaill sectional elevation taken on line 22 of Fig. 3 looking in the direction of the arrows thereon. Fig. 3 is a sectional elevation taken on line 33 of Fig. 1. F ig.-4l is a sectional elevation taken on line 41 of Fig. 3 looking toward the left in said figure. Fig. 5 is a sectional elevation taken on line 4-1 of Fig. 3 looking toward the right in said figure. Fig. G'is a sectional elevationtaken on line 66 of Fig. 3 looking in the direction of the arrows on said figure, and broken away. Fig. 7 is a detail plan of the split friction ring. Fig. 8 is a detail sectional elevation taken on line 8-8 of Fig. 3. Fig. 9 is a detail plan of the clamp arm.

Like numerals refer to like parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

In the drawings, 10 is the casing of the hopper, 11 is the front cover thereof and 12 is the top cover through which the lacing hooks are placed in the casing 10.

13 is a door from which the lacing hooks may be removed from the casing 10, said door being pivoted at 14 to said casing and locked in position by means of a spring catch 15.

A shaft 16 is rotatably mounted in a hearing 17 in said casing and has fastened to its front end a picker plate 18 provided with a plurality of arms 19, all of which are so formed as to converge toward the center of.

the casing and one by one to deliver hooks to the upper end of a raceway 20 which projects into the interior of the casing 10 through a hole 21 provided in the central portion of the cover 11. Said shaft 16 has rotatably mounted thereon a worm gear 22 meshing into a worm 23 which is driven by a shaft 2 1 ournaled to rotate in bearings on a bracket frame 25 forming, in effect, a portion of the casing 10 of the hopper to which it is rigidly fastened by screws 26. The shaft 24; is rotated by means of a pulley 27. The shaft 16 is adapted to be rotated in opposite directions alternately by means of the two drivers 28 and 29. The driver 28 is rotatably mounted upon the shaft 16 and has a hub 30 thereon provided with teeth 31 adapted to engage corresponding teeth 32 on the worm gear 22. A gear 33 is fastened to the hub 30 of the driver 28 and meshes into three intermediate pinions at (Fig. 3), said pinions being rotatably mounted upon studs 35 fast to the bracket frame 25. The pinions 34 also mesh into an internal'gear 36 which is fastened to an annular flange 37 forming a portion of the driver 29. Said annular flange is integral with a hollow cy lindrical casing 38, also forming a portion of the driver 29.

The driver 29 is loosely mounted on the shaft 16 and has a hub 39 located inside the hollow casing 38 which is surrounded by a split ring 40. Said ring is split upon its opposite sides by L-slots ll and has upon diametrically opposite sides thereof, respectively, two pins 42 and 43. These pins have their outer faces inclined toward each other, as they extend outwardly from said ring and said pins project into correspondingly inclined recesses in one end of a Ushaped clamp arm 53 pivoted at 45 to an arm 46, q constituting a clutch member, which is rigidly fastened to the picker shaft 16. Two rocker arms 44 are also pivoted at 45 to opposite ends, respectively, of the arm 4&-

arm 44 and moves with said rocker arm, so

that said clamp arm constitutes, in effect, a portion of the rocker arm 44 and is rendered adjustable relatively thereto by means of the set-screw 48. Upon oppositeends of the rocker arms 44 from that which embodies the U-shaped clamp arm 53a friction roll 49 is journaled which under normal condltions remains 1n engagement with the notch 50 provided in the periphery of the driver 28. Thus it will be seen that the clamp arm 53, forming a portion of the rocker arm 44, is at all times in looking engagement with the friction ring 40 by reason of the pins 42 and 43 projecting at all times into the recesses provided in said clamp arm 58.

Springs 51' are connected at their opposite ends to pins 52 fast to the rocker arms 44 between the pivots 45 of said rocker arms and the friction rolls 49, so that thefriction rolls 49v on said rocker arms are normally held in the recesses 50 in the periphery of the driver 28. r

The general operation of the mechanism hereinbefore specifically described is as follows Under normalconditions the different parts are in the relative positions illustrated in the drawings. If, now, a lacing hook becomes caught in any way so as to interfere with the free rotation of the picker plate 18 and its arms 19, as, for example, a lacing hook becomes caught or jammed on any one of said blades and interferes with the free rotation of the picker plate, the picker plate and its shaft 16, which at that-time are rotating in the direction of the arrow a (Fig. 1), will stop. The driver 28 will continue rotating in the direction of said arrow a and the shaft 16 having stopped the clutch member 46 and the rocker arms 44 pivoted thereto will stop and thus by the continuation of the rotation of the driver 28 the rolls 49 will be forced out of the notches 50 and this will rockthe arms 44 upon theirpivots 45 and the screws 48 in the ends of said rocker arms 44 will engage the cross-bars 54 of the clamp arms 53 and will force the pins 42 and 43 toward each other on account of the oppositely inclined faces of said pins, so that as the clamp arm 53 is forced toward'the shaft 16 the split ring 40 will be firmly gripped to the hub 39 of the second driver 29. As soon as this occurs said second driver, which is rotating in the opposite direction to that of the to which the rocker arms 44 are pivoted, to rotate in the opposite direction to that and the picker plate in the opposite direction to that of the arrow a.

When the picker plate has been rotated in this opposite direction for one-quarter of a rotation the rolls 49 will drop into the notches 50, which are located diametrilVhcn this occurs the split ring 40 will be released so as to expand and unlock the driver 29 from the clutch member 46 and said clutch member will then become locked to the driver 28 and will again be reversed 'so as to rotate in its normal directionor'in the direction of the arrow 64, (Fig. 1).

j If, during the backward quarter rotation of the picker plate -hereinbefore described vthe difficulty or obstruction is not removed of the recesses 50, due to the continued rotation of the driver 28, and the picker plate will be moved through another quarter rotation by the driver 29, as hereinbefore de-' scribed. Ordinarily, however, the obstruchereinbefore referred to. v if Having thus described my invention, what i I claim and desire by Letters Patent to secure is:

1. A hopper for feeding articles having, in ombination, a casing constructed and arranged to hold said articles, a raceway lead- Zing out of said casing, a picker plate constructed and arranged to feed said articles from said casing to said raceway, mechanism constructed and" arranged to rotate said picker plate and mechanism construct, ed and arranged to reverse the direction of rotation of said picker plate when abnormal resistance to said rotation is encountered.

2 A hopper for feeding articles having, in combination, a casing constructed and arranged to hold articles, a raceway leading out of said casing, picker plate constructed and arranged to feed said articles from which said picker plate is fastened, a clutch member fast to said shaft, two drivers, mechanism constructed and arranged to rotate said drivers in opposite directions, respectively, and means constructed and arranged to unlock said clutch member from one of said drivers and to lock it to the other of said drivers when abnormal resistdriver 28, will cause the clutch member 46,"

of the driver 28, thus rotating the shaft 16 cally opposite each other, the spring 51 acting to draw said rolls 1nto said recesses.

the rolls 49 will be immediately pushed out tion is removed during the quarter rotation said casing to said raceway, .a shaft to ance to the rotation of said picker plate is encountered thereby.

3. A hopper for feeding articles having, in combination, a casing constructed and ar ranged to hold articles, a raceway leading out of said casing, a picker plate constructed and arranged to feed said articles from said casing to said raceway, a shaft to which said picker plate is fastened, a clutch member fast to said shaft, two drivers, mechanism constructed and arranged to rotate said drivers in opposite directions, respectively, and means constructed and arranged to alternately unlock said clutch member from one of said drivers and to lock it to the other of said drivers when abnormal resistance to the rotation of said picker plate is encountered thereby, said last-named means constructed and arranged to unlock said clutch member from said last-named driver and to lock said clutch member to said firstnamed driver when Said resistance has been overcome.

l. A hopper for feeding articles having, in combination, a casing constructed and arranged to hold articles, a raceway leading out of said casing, a picker plate constructed and arranged to feed said articles from said casing to said raceway, a shaft to which said picker plate is fastened, a clutch member fast to said shaft, two drivers, mechanism constructed and arranged to rotate said drivers in opposite directions, respectively, and means constructed and arranged to normally lock one of said drivers to said clutch member, said means constructed and arranged to yield when abnormal resistance to the rotation of said picker plate is encoun tercd thereby and allow said clutch member to be unlocked from said last-named driver and to be locked to the other of said drivers.

'5. A hopper for feeding articles having, in combination, a casing constructed and arranged to hold articles, a. raceway leading out f said casing, a picker plate constructed and arranged to feed said articles from said casing to said raceway, a shaft to which said picker plate is fastened, an arm, constituting a clutch member, fastened to said shaft, a driver rotatably mounted on said shaft and having a recess in its periphery, a second driver rotatably mounted on said shaft, a friction ring engaging said second driver, mechanism constructed and arranged to rotate said drivers in opposite directions, respectively, a rocker arm pivoted to said clutch member, and a spring acting to hold one end of said rocker arm in engagement with said recess, the opposite end of said rocker arm arranged in locking engagement with said friction ring, whereby, when abnormal resistance to the rotation of said picker plate is encountered thereby, said rocker arm will be forced out of said recess and against said friction ring to lock said clutch member to said second driver whereby the direction of rotation of said shaft will be reversed.

6. A hopper for feeding articles having, in combination, a asing constructed and arranged to hold articles, a raceway leading out of said casing, a picker plate constructed and arranged to feed said articles from said casing to said raceway, a shaft to which said picker plate is fastened, an arm constituting a clutch member fast to said shaft and extending transversely thereof, a driver rotatably mounted on said shaft at one side of said arm and having two recesses oppositely disposed in its periphery, a second driver rotatably mounted on said shaft on the opposite side of said arm, a friction ring engaging said second driver, mechanism constructed and arranged to rotate said drivers in opposite directions, respectively, a rocker arm pivoted to each of the opposite ends of said clutch member, respectively, and a spring connecting said rocker arms together and acting normally to hold one end of each of said rocker arms in engagement with one of said recesses, the opposite ends of said arms arranged in locking engagement with said friction rin whereby, when abnormal resistanceto the rotation of said picker'plate is encountered thereby, said rocker arms will be forced out of said recesses and against said friction ring to lock said clutch member to said second driver, whereby the direction of rotation of said shaft will be reversed.

7. A hopper for feeding articles having, in combination, a casing constructed and arranged to hold articles, a raceway leading out of said casing, a picker plat-e constructed and arranged to feed articles from. said casing to said raceway, a shaft to which said picker plate is fastened, a clutch member fast to said shaft, two drivers rotatably mounted on said shaft, a gear fast to one of said drivers, an internal gear fast to the other of said drivers and an intermediate gear ournaled to rotate on said casing and meshing into said gears, whereby said drivers may be rotated in opposite directions, respectively, and means constructed and arranged to alternately lock said clutch member to one of said drivers, respectively.

8. A hopper for feeding articles having, in combination, a casing, a shaft journaled to rotate therein, a picker plate fast to said shaft, a clutch member fast to said shaft, two drivers, means constructed and arranged to alternately lock said clutch member to one of said drivers, respectively, and mechanism constructed and arranged to rotate said drivers in opposite directions, respectively, one of said drivers embodying a hollow casing rotatably mounted on said shaft and inclosing said clutch member, the other of said drivers and said locking means.

9. A hopper for feeding articles having, in combination, a casing, a shaft rotatably mounted therein, a picker plate fast thereto, a clutch member fast to. said shaft, two drivers rotatably mounted on said shaft, mechanism constructed and arranged to r0- tate said drivers in oppesite directions, respectively, a rocker arm pivoted to said clutch member, one. end of said rocker arm arranged to engage a recess in the periphery of one of'said drivers, a spring constructed and arranged to normally hold said rocker arm in engagement with said recess, a split friction ring encircling a hub on the other of said drivers, and two pins fast to said ring on opposite sides, respectively, of the split portion thereof and inclined at an angle to each other, said pins constructed and arranged to be engaged by the opposite end of said rocker arm whereby when abnormal resistance to rotation is encountered by said picker plate said rocker arm will be forced out of engagement with said recess and toward said split ring and cause said ring to grip said hub and the direction of rotation of said shaft to be thereby re.

versed. 7

10. A- hopper for feeding articles having, in combination, a casing, a shaft rotatably mounted therein, a picker plate fast thereto, a clutch member fast to said shaft, two drivers rotatably mounted on said shaft, mechanism constructed and arranged to rotate said drivers in opposite directions, respectively, a rocker arm pivoted to said clutch member, one end of said rocker arm arranged to engage a recess in the periphery of one of said drivers, the opposite end of said rocker arm embodying a clamp arm pivoted toswing with said rocker arm,a

spring constructed and arranged to nor} mally hold sa d rocker arm 1n engagement with said recess, a split friction'ring en circling a portion of the other of said drivers, and two pins fast to said ring on opposite sides, respectively, of the split por tion thereof and having oppositely inclined faces, said pins constructed and arranged to Gov t s pa ent y b b ained 10.:

h en a ed by said c mp rm w e when abnormal resistance tojrotation is en oun ered y i pi k r Pla ed. rocker will be forced out ofv engagement with said recess and toward said split ring and cause saidtogrip said portion of said said rocker arm embodying a' clamp arm pivotedto swing with said rocker arm, a

screw having screw-threaded engagement with said rocker arm and bearing against saidclamp arm, a spring constructed and arranged to normally hold said rocker arm in engagement with said recess, a split friction ring encircling a portion of the other of said drivers, and two pins fast to said ri'ng'on opposite sides, respectively, of the split portion thereof andhaving oppositely inclined faces, said pins constructed and arranged .to be, engaged by said clamp arm, whereby, when abnormal resistance to rotation is: encountered by said picker plate, said rocker armwill be forced out of engagement with said recess and'toward said split ring and cause. said ring to, grip said portion of said last-named driver and the direction of rotation of-said shaftto be thereby reversed In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two subscribing- Wi I g a ARTHUR R. HAVENER.

WVitnesses: 7 v

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